Consequences: SAO
by shanejayell
Summary: SAO players are dying in the real world... why?


Sword Art Online: Consequences

Kazuto looked around, then headed towards the table where his contact waited.

"Hey, Kazuto!" the business suit clad man waved, "Over here!"

Kazuto winced, then walked on. Kikuoka was officially with the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Telecomunications Bureau, but Kazuto suspected there was more to him. He was been assigned to the Sword Art Online case, and had been called after Kirito had awakened. Most importantly he had helped track down Asuka for him, which earned him a few favours.

"You sounded kind of urgent when you called me," Kazuto noted after they exchanged greetings and ordered coffee.

Kikuoka nodded, then said, "We've got something unusual going on with some of the former Sword Art Online players."

"Oh?" Kazuto prompted him.

"They're committing suicide," Kikuoka said seriously.

"Eeeh?!" Kazuto exclaimed in surprise.

"There's been twelve so far, and originally the local authorities didn't connect the cases. I only found out when I recognized the name of someone I interviewed, who was one of the suicides," Kikuoka admitted.

"So why did you contact me?" Kazuto asked, then narrowed his eyes slightly. "You're looking for something else that may connect them. Because other SAO players haven't done this," he noted.

"Pretty much," Kikuoka conceded.

"Do you have photos?" Kazuto asked.

"Here," Kikuoka passed over a compact tablet computer.

One of the quirks of SAO had been that it's creator had, shortly after he trapped everyone in the game, caused everyone to resemble their real world appearances. Their in-game handles remained the same, but they looked like their real selves. So while a list of names wouldn't help you identify someone, pictures could work.

Kazuto flipped through the faces, but initially nothing leaped out at him. He went through again more slowly, frowning slightly at a sense of faint familiarity. He stopped at an image of an attractive young woman, though rather gaunt looking.

(While SAO players were medically cared for while trapped in the game, you innevitably lost weight and muscle tone. All the survivors had been left gaunt and weakened. It had been all Kazuto could do to walk after he woke up.)

"You recognized someone?" Kikuoka asked.

"Rosalita, of the orange guild Titan's Hand. They were Player Killers," Kazuto said bleakly.

"Player Killers?" Kikuoka yelped.

"Player Killers. People who either believed SAO was just a game and if you died you just woke up," Kazuto said, "or those who simply just didn't care if they might be killing people."

"So Rosalita...," Kikuoka said.

As far as I know she didn't kill anyone directly, but she scouted and so on," Kazuto said thoughtfully. He flipped through the images again searching his memory, "In fact, I think they all are Player Killers."

Kikuoka digested that. "So why did they commit suicide?" he asked quietly.

"Think about it," Kazuto said. "You're a Player Killer, but you honestly believed that all you were doing was knocking folks out of the game. You sincerely believed you weren't hurting anyone."

"Go on," Kikuoka murmured.

"So the game is defeated, and you wake up... and you find out you were wrong. It WAS deadly. And you are, at least, probably a murderer. Or even a multiple murderer, if you were in a guild like Titan's Hand or worse, Laughing Coffin. And no one seems to want to punish you," Kazuto added.

Kikuoka made a face. After a great deal of debate the decision had been made not to try to prosecute players for things that happened in SAO. When the game had been beaten, the internal logs of what happened had been lost. The only way to prosecute Player Killers would have been testimony of other players, which would be hard to use in court with literally no other evidence.

"So, consumed by guilt, you do something self destructive," Kazuto finished.

Kikuoka nodded, "So, what can we do?"

"I'm tempted to say 'let them do it' but..." Kazuto admitted, "they may really have believed they weren't hurting anyone." He sighed, "We SAO survivors are all under counseling. Send a alert out to everyone dealing with them, explaining the situation. Hopefully that might help."

"it's worth a try," Kikuoka nodded. "Thank you... I know you must have very complicated feelings on this."

"That's an understatement," Kazuto agreed.

End

Notes: Canonly, it's established that at least some PKers claim they don't believe folks are dying in the real world. How much they actually are telling the truth is hard to say of course. But my thought was: if they WERE telling the truth how would they react knowing they had actually killed people?


End file.
